M&S STRATEGY FOCUS: ‘Your M&S’ to lure back customers
New marketing campaign to focus on core strengths
Mark & Spencer’s chief executive Stuart Rose is launching a new marketing campaign, ‘Your M&S’, which will focus on promoting the core brand.
A trading statement for the 14 weeks to July 10 showed the scale of the task facing the new M&S management team headed by Rose.
Group like-for-like sales fell by 2.8 per cent, with clothing sales down by 0.5 per cent and home sales down by 12.8 per cent. Food like-for-likes declined by 1.5 per cent. Total group sales were up by 0.7 per cent.
Rose is to focus firmly on the core brand, which M&S said is one of the strongest in the UK and is trusted by customers, but seen as ‘formal, middle class and boring’. All sub-brands are being reviewed to ensure they add value and enhance the core M&S brand.
The new marketing campaign, ‘Your M&S’, will launch in September “to reconnect with our core customers and remind them that we sell top quality product at good prices”.
In clothing the emphasis will be on brand values such as classic, stylish, superior cut, quality material and value for money. In Food, ‘Your M&S’ will emphasise quality, freshness, desirability and indulgence.
